Dave McKenna, Pianist Known for Solo Jazz Work

From: Gregory Hopkins

Dave McKenna, Pianist Known for Solo Jazz Work, Dies at 78 By PETER
 KEEPNEWS

Dave McKenna, a jazz pianist who began his career as a big-band
 sideman but became best known for his distinctive solo playing, with a
 powerful left hand that made a bass player seem unnecessary, died
 Saturday in State College, Pa. He was 78. The cause was lung cancer,
 said his companion, Liz Muir of Brookline,  Mass. Widely admired by his
 fellow musicians, Mr. McKenna acquired a devoted following over the
 years even though he rarely left the East Coast. He spent most of the
 last four decades of his life in Massachusetts, after moving from New
York City to Cape Cod in 1966. Most listeners in other parts of the
 world knew his work primarily from his recordings, of which there were
 many. David McKenna was born on May 30, 1930, in Woonsocket, R.I. His
 father, William, was a postman who played drums as a hobby; his mother,
 Catherine, was a pianist who gave him his first lessons on the
 instrument. He first performed with local groups in Boston as a teenager
 before moving on to the big bands of Charlie Ventura and Woody Herman.
 After serving in the Army and rejoining Ventura for a while, he worked
 with small ensembles led by Stan Getz and others and began long
 associations with two mainstays of the traditional jazz scene, the
 cornetist Bobby Hackett and the clarinetist and soprano saxophonist Bob
 Wilber. After his move to Cape Cod, Mr. McKenna worked mostly as a solo
 pianist, occasionally in New York but more often in New England. For
 much of the 1980s he was the pianist in residence at the Copley Plaza
 Hotel in Boston. Mr. McKenna made a solo album for ABC Paramount in 1955
 but otherwise rarely recorded until signing with Concord Records in the
 late 1970s. He recorded frequently after that, as bandleader,
 accompanist and, most notably, unaccompanied soloist. It was in that
 role, in performance and on albums with titles like "My Friend the
 Piano" and "Left Handed Complement," that he gave full vent to his
 distinctive style. That style, rooted in the jazz piano tradition of an
 earlier era, was built around powerful bass lines, elegantly voiced
 chords and a loving approach to melodies, especially those of the Tin
 Pan Alley standards that were the foundation of his vast repertory. He
 liked to spin out long medleys united by a theme, like famo us and
 obscure songs with "You," "Stars" or "Spring" in the title. Unlike many
 of his contemporaries, he was more likely to ornament a tune with
 elegant embellishments than to use it as a springboard for elaborate
 improvisations that left the melody behind. "I don't know if I qualify
 as a bona fide jazz guy," he once said. "I play saloon piano. I like to
 stay close to the melody." Survivors also include his wife, Frances
 Wiggins McKenna, of Oak Island,  N.C.; his sons Stephen, of State
 College, and Douglas, of Dennis,  Mass.; a brother, Donald, of
Woonsocket; two sisters, Jean O'Donnell of Woonsocket and Patricia
 Savard of Barrington, R.I.; and one granddaughter.